The Bardiani-CSF team has announced it has quit the Mouvement Pour un Cyclisme Crédible (MPCC), justifying its decision on the way the voluntary association made public that one of the Italian team’s riders had started the Giro d’Italia with low cortisol levels.
The MPCC first claimed that a Bardiani-CSF rider started the Giro d’Italia with low cortisol levels on May 21, the day after Nicola Boem won stage 10 to Forlì for the Professional Continental team. The news was reported by French newspaper L’Equipe and then the MPCC quickly issued a press release.
The Bardiani-CSF team insisted it has not done anything wrong because the rider’s cortisol levels had returned to what it calls 'normal levels' in further tests carried out by the Italian team on Saturday morning, just a few hours before the opening team time trial stage. The pre-race cortisol tests were carried out by the UCI on the Thursday before the race. During the same tests Kiwi rider George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) was also found to have a low cortisol level and was pulled from the race by his team. He later explained that tests proved his allergy/asthma medication had sparked his low cortisol levels.
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The Bardiani-CSF team accepts it misinterpreted the MPCC rules by allowing the rider to start the Giro d’Italia instead of resting for eight days as per MPCC rules but blasted the MPCC for the way it handled the case.
The Italian team did not name the rider involved or explain why one of its riders had cortisol limits that were below the MPCC permitted levels.
“We confirm that that we made a mistake on the interpretations of the rules but the rider in question was not responsible for the case and so not allowing him to start the Giro d’Italia would have penalised his future career without it being his fault,” team manager Bruno Reverberi argued in an open letter from the team.
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